As A King
by Kelsey
Summary: Max Evans is captured and experimented on again. But this time, no one's coming to get him, and the information his enemies are gleaning is becoming dangerous to Michael and Isabel. What lengths will the King go to, to save his people?


****

As A King

by

[Princess McPhee][1]

Disclaimer: I don't own.

Summary: Max has been captured again, and is being tortured. No one knows where he is, and the information that his captors are gaining from him is becoming a threat to Michael and Isabel. What will the alien king do as a last stand for the safety of his people?

Rating: PG-13. Language, disturbing imagery.

> The pain... it's piercing, consuming, taking my entire attention. It flows through my body like liquid fire, igniting every single nerve it comes to. It forces me to close my eyes, screwing up my face in pain, but though I see nothing of the little room, there is red everywhere. Nothing but an expanse of red. Then it blinks, and flickers out.
> 
> There is an emptiness, a place of darkness, where I am now hiding, within myself. It's a safe haven, but it won't last forever. Again, I will have to come out, have to face the people who think they are learning something by doing this. Don't they understand yet that I have a human body? That there is nothing much extraordinary about the physical?
> 
> Nasedo once told me that our abilities are human abilities, simply abilities that pure humans are not able to tap. Larek has told me that we are the bonding of human and alien cells, via the Ganderium. I don't know who to believe, but I know that I don't have two hearts, or livers, or three lives.
> 
> Only two.
> 
> My blood... my blood, is not human, and ultimately, it was the one thing that gave me away. It was a blood screening, set up meticulously by another agent in our school so that I couldn't fool it. With Tess's mind-warping powers, we would have had a chance. But without, there was never a doubt.
> 
> I see now why Nasedo was always telling us that we were stronger together. 
> 
> When Isabel and Michael saw what happened to me, they ran. They got away. But I never will, I can feel it in my bones.
> 
> This time, Liz won't come to rescue me. I don't know how I feel it, I just do. Perhaps someone has convinced her it's too dangerous. I wouldn't blame her. But I think it's more likely that she doesn't know. I don't think anyone knows where to start looking for me.
> 
> It was a long ride. Long enough to be anywhere on earth, but the one thing I know for certain is that it's far, far away from Roswell, New Mexico.
> 
> The table I'm lying on is cold, steel, not even covered with anything as simple as a cloth. An alien, a super-intelligent being that could explode the room with a wave of his hand, is being treated this way, and I have to admit, somewhere in the midst of my pain, I'm a little offended.
> 
> Why, huh, why then? Why haven't I exploded the room with a 'wave of my hand'?
> 
> It's too simple. It's too fucking easy. Perhaps the 'scientists' have done more than I think, but as far as I can tell, I hit my head. I hit my damn head, and now my powers are gone. They are coming back, slowly, but it will never be soon enough to escape this place. By the time they return, I'll be dead.
> 
> Yet, when my allies desert me, my enemy stays. I have no powers, under my control, but the alien blood remains, making them subject me to more, more, and still more of their testing. The curse of being an alien king.
> 
> You know, I was always proud of who I was. Scared, sure, because I had to hide, always, every day of my life, but it was really a chance that no one else would ever get, to know what my purpose in this world was. 
> 
> Now, I would give anything to be human.
> 
> My throat is hoarse, but I don't remember screaming. I hear somebody's voice when they're hurting me, but I'm so far from reality that I don't understand it's mine until much later. They're playing with my healing abilities right now, and this is more painful, much more, than anything they've done before. 
> 
> It's been days, weeks at least. No one is coming, and I know the longer I allow them to learn from me, the more danger Michael and Isabel are in. I've seen the charts, they've barely gotten down a quarter of what we can do, the others are still relatively safe, but if I let them keep 'experimenting' with me, that may not last much longer.
> 
> They've been careless, and left me alone. I know there are cameras watching me, but no one will be here soon enough to save me. And I know I can't allow the clues of my biology to remain in my enemies hands.
> 
> When I die, nothing will remain. I may turn to dust, like Nasedo, or perhaps that is the trick of only a full-blooded alien. Or, more likely, I will lie, as a rotting corpse, just like a human. Either way, there will no longer be anything to be gleaned from me. My biology, as I've already explained, with the exemption of the blood, is human enough.
> 
> I turn my powers inward, and concentrate hard. Usually, I am forced to hold back, to keep a percentage of my energy, just to continue living afterwards, but since that's not my goal, I throw my entire being into this one effort. This is my one, final stand as King, doing his best to keep his followers safe.
> 
> There's a blood vessel in my head, that I can see now, looking inward. A gentle squeeze nearly produces a black out, I don't want that. If I black out, I won't be able to continue to my death.
> 
> Another, and another. Finally, I find the right artery. I know that I'll have to move fast once I start, because they will surely come when their equipment tells them something is wrong. So, before I start, I take a moment to say good-bye.
> 
> __
> 
> Good-bye, Isabel, who's always been my home.
> 
> Good-bye, Michael, the brother I never had.
> 
> Good-bye, Liz, my soulmate and forever love.
> 
> Good-bye, Mom and Dad, who will never know who I really am, but loved me just the same.
> 
> Good-bye, Kyle, Maria, Jim. 
> 
> I love you all. Please, find the will to go on, and be happy. Remember that I'm doing this for you. 
> 
> And I have just one request. 
> 
> If he ever comes back, please take care of my son.
> 
> I take a deep breath, and press the vessel until it pops. Disturbing sensations fill my head and body, and I concentrate hard on savoring these last moments. My willingness to die for Isabel and Michael doesn't mean that I want to go. It means that I love them, more than anything on this world or off, and I couldn't bear to think that I was the reason they died.
> 
> People rush into the room just as my vision is going blurry, and I smile at them, knowing that it will be much too late by the time they find out what I've done, to repair the damage. A woman shakes me, telling me that I have to fix the damage I've done to myself, that she knows I can, but she says it in such a clinical, detached way, that it doesn't evoke any kind of emotion from me at all. I smile at her, too.
> 
> I feel Isabel, the slight connection to her that we've always had, growing stronger during my last moments, and the love and fear that consumes her. _I love you, Max_, She tells me, and I try to send that back to her. I don't know if I succeed.
> 
> I can't see anymore, and I'm blacking out. I know this is the end. I manage just enough strength to lift a hand from the table and wave, a little gesture to the doctors whom I know will try for hours to revive me, filling with spite towards them as I face my death. They glare and shuffle and worry and fidget, like I'm some kind of lab animal, not at all concerned about the loss of my life, only about the loss of their information packet.
> 
> "Bye," I whisper harshly.

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   [1]: mailto:teneljade@netzero.net
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/roswell.html
   [3]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/rosfanfic.html



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